Concept
The operations manual
The operations manual is Gerber's document in which every recurring process is written down, one page each, by the person who does it, in the order they do it, so that someone with less experience could follow it without asking. It is what makes a business something that can be handed over.
For a company of one the manual is a folder of one-page documents, not a binder: how a new customer is onboarded, how a job is quoted, how a delivery is packed, how a complaint is handled, how the accounts are split. Writing it changes the work as well as recording it, because the act of writing down how you quote reveals that you quote three different ways, and systems that can be seen get improved. The test of a page is that someone else follows it once without asking you anything. Jarvis adds why it matters even if you never hire: the manual is what makes your size a choice, because a business with one can take on help for a month, hand over to a locum, or be sold, and a business without one is you.
A real-life example
A baker's manual after two months of Friday hours is nine pages, from the Thursday feed to the delivery route to what to do when a loaf fails. Her sister runs the bakery from it for two weeks in August; two customers notice a difference, nobody cancels.
How to use it
- 1One page per recurring process, in the order it happens, exceptions at the bottom.
- 2The person who does the thing writes the page and owns its improvement.
- 3Test each page by having someone follow it once while you watch and say nothing.